Tory backbenchers reject call to amend party rules

Theresa May announcing that a vote of no confidence had been tabled on 18 December 2018, a vote that she won comfortably, but her popularity has declined substantially since that vote. Credit: Shutterstock.com.

Members of the 1922 Committee of the Conservative Party have rejected calls to amend the rules so that the party can have a vote of confidence in the Prime Minister, Theresa May.

Current party rules only allow for a challenge once every 12 months and a vote of confidence was held in December 2018, which the Prime Minister comfortably won, meaning that another challenge cannot take place until December 2019.

Meeting for a second day, the 1922 Committee was reportedly concerned about changing the regulations for a specific purpose and had further anxieties about revealing more splits in the party ahead of next week’s local council elections, which take place on 2 May.

The committee did, however, call for May to prepare the party for her departure by setting out more clearly when she would step down.

One Brexiteer Member of Parliament, Andrea Jenkyn, said that there was a lot of grassroots pressure for a change in the rules and she added that the best thing for May to do would be to resign.

Nick came to FreightWaves in December 2018 from Fairplay, a shipping market publication. He covers the shipping, freight and logistics industry in Europe.
Since starting his career as a journalist in 1990, Nick has worked for a number of significant freight publications abroad, including International Freighting Weekly, the online news service for Containerisation International, ICIS, the chemical industry reporting service, as well as Seatrade in Greece.
Nick also worked as a freelance journalist writing for Lloyd’s List, The Observer, The Express and The European newspapers among others before joining Seatrade Newsweek in Athens.